Zach Dorfman

I find the idea that belligerent militarism somehow doesn’t “count” if it involves one’s own hemisphere perplexing.

This is an essay you should write and pitch

It makes no sense whatsoever and they don’t have any idea how to use Dunaway. Far prefer Parallax View

Three days is SO BAD but everyone looks fly as hell

Choo Choo deception is the mind of the state

I love PTA‘s films in general, and that film immediately shot to the top of his works for me.

Spectacular film. Deserves all the plaudits and awards it will inevitably garner.

Actually, she was referring to the 1990s-era rap-rock band “Korn”

Brilliant novel

The battle for small-l liberalism against the forces of autocracy is the central struggle of our time.

At least historically, it was seen as a bipartisan project—the protection of individual rights and property rights. Gary Wills believed, for instance, that Nixon was a liberal par excellence.

I’m struggling to find an analogue in US history wherein a president (at least rhetorically) declares war on the country’s great cities, in front of its uniformed military leadership—because there isn’t. That this isn’t universally condemned shows just how despotic much of US politics has become.

The patent illegality of these ostensibly national-security-related tariffs continues to shock me, as does the supine and credulous reaction to them.

that’s putting it kindly.

But the radicalized nature of Israeli domestic politics precluded them from it. And now we’re here.

They were absolutely being cheered on for that. There was a moment where, after they essentially obliterated Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel could have withdrawn, declared victory, earned the quiet thanks of essentially all the Sunni states in the region, and handed Gaza over to an interim Arab force.

Which part? The murders on 10/7 or the early-campaign destruction of Hamas? Some were happy with both. Certainly the Hezbollah part.

Unfortunately, this was clear from the beginning.

The radicals on both sides of the conflict have gotten their way: a state of total war, with no guardrails on the murder of civilians.

It was also a bid by Sinwar—in his heinous immorality—to spark an israeli reaction so harsh it would turn the country into an international pariah. In this he also succeeded, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives of his people.

Unfortunately, ”don’t tread on me” was secretly twinned with “I derive deep glee from treading on you”

When the histories are written, these sorts of stories will take their rightful place alongside the ones describing the collapse of the legal order as critical artifacts of the era.

www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/b...

The end of a constitutional order will be a very sad time.

FBI fires agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

BREAKING: The FBI has fired agents photographed kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest that followed the death of George Floyd, AP sources say.

www.justsecurity.org/121421/hegse...

I say this sincerely: There is so much 9/11-related material that has yet to be declassified that the president could release.

Eight years as editor-an-chief! What a window into all the decisions made at that publication for nearly a decade

Supreme Court clears way for Trump to withhold $4B in foreign aid approved by Congress The ruling is not a final decision on the broader question of the president’s power to unilaterally “impound” congressionally appropriated funding.

BREAKING: #SCOTUS, in apparent 6-3 ruling, allows Trump to unilaterally cancel $4B in foreign aid Congress appropriated for this fiscal year. A 'for now' ruling but it's ball game for this $. Court cites 'foreign affairs' backing lean to president here www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

(And by Assange I‘m referring only to his Espionage Act charges, not his computer hacking conspiracy ones)

This is a take bound to anger many, but the two public figures who have now experienced the most arbitrary and malicious prosecution by the United States—with the biggest long-term consequences for freedom of speech and the rule of law—are James Comey and Julian Assange.

The fact they they couldn’t get a grand jury to go along with the third charge is already a giveaway